The Deity of Christ
Copyright 1998:
William A. Simpson
It is easy to get a man to say that Jesus was a good man. They'll all say that, most of them anyway. And, indeed, He was a good man, and is. A few will go so far as to say that He was a great man. Some will even admit that He was a prophet, a godly man who was mistreated and misjudged by an evil world and, specifically, by His own people. Others will recognize that our Lord was a son of God, invested with powers greater than the prophets, yet a level or two beneath the Throne of God.
Conversely, there are those who bitterly denounce Him, and consider His followers no more than weak and foolish. To them, Jesus was a wimp, a weak man who deserved His fate, and His followers, of that sort. Might is right. Forge ahead at whatever cost. If only they realized that they have no might that can stand against God. They seek the present moment, not having eternity in their eyes or in their hearts. Unbelieving, they will suffer the terrible judgment of God, and its execution by the power of His might. They shall see the God whom they would not worship, but despised. They will receive judgment, appropriate to their blasphemous arrogance, to the depths and the heights of their rebellious hearts, who supplant God and put man in His place. Jesus was a good Man. The only good One. He was a great Man, and the greatest Prophet who ever graced the face of mother earth. He was Son of Man, but He was also the only begotten Son of the very God.
There is more than humanity in Jesus Christ, no matter how exalted He may have been in His human powers and abilities over normal men. If Jesus were just a man, even the greatest who ever lived, He would still be man, but not Man. His blood still would have come from Adam's seed, and He would still be a sinner.
Theologically, it is impossible for Jesus to have been only a man, for how can one sinner pay another's debt? You see, any and every man must pay his own sin debt, unless One who is innocent may be found who can pay it for him. If Jesus were just a man, it is absolutely inevitable that He would have been a sinner. The fact that He is God is surely proven by the necessity that the Savior of the world be without sin. This is why the Bible teaches the virgin birth of Christ. That too is a theological necessity. Had Jesus not been born of a virgin, His father would have been human, and not Divine, and His blood would have been sinful blood.
The Scriptures testify:
"For there is none righteous, no, not one... there is none who does good, no, not one" (Rom 3:10,12).
If one man is to pay for the sins of another, he
must himself be innocent of any sin. Since no man is good, it necessarily follows
that any savior must be something more than man.
Speaking on
the rapture of the Church, Paul said that we are always,
"...looking for that blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works" (Tit 2:13).
Jesus' blood is not sinful, nor can it be, for He
is born of the very Seed of God. Jesus is fully man, for His mother was of man, but
He is also fully God, for His Father is God. That is, God the Father placed His Seed
in the womb of a virgin girl, and the Issue of that union was both Man and God.
Therefore, He could be found worthy to pay the redemption price. Unlike the first
Adam, Jesus resisted every temptation, and He is declared innocent. Whereas every
man born of Adam's seed is shown to be sinful, this One is born of God; though fully Man,
yet also fully God, and able to know and to do His will in every particular.
The Creator of the universe in human flesh, dying that we might live!
Jesus Christ is that spotless Lamb, sacrificed as a ransom for the sins of every man,
whose Blood was shed, and sprinkled over the mercy seat in heaven in order to meet the
demands of the justice of God, who cannot overlook sin but must execute judgment in every
last instance if He is to remain righteous. In His inestimable wisdom and mercy and
love, God executed the penalty for our sins on Himself, that He might be just as well as
merciful. No other religion has a God of such love, but all other religions have
gods who are mean-spirited judges, demanding a righteousness that no man can give.
Every other religion besides Christianity causes people to flee from God in fear.
Christianity causes men to come to a God who loves them even more than they love
themselves. No other religion would have such a God, preferring to elevate men to
God's stature.
There is an interesting passage of Scripture in the Book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ that says,
"And I saw in the right hand of Him who sat on the throne a scroll written inside and on the back, sealed with seven seals. Then I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, 'Who is worthy to open the scroll and to loose its seals?' And no one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll, or to look at it. So I wept much, because no one was found worthy to read the scroll or to look at it.
But one of the elders said to me, 'Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals.'
And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures and in the midst of the twenty-four elders, stood a Lamb as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God (cp Isa 11:2) sent out into all the earth.
Then He came and took the scroll out of the hand of Him who sat on the throne.
Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.
And they sang a new song, saying:
'You are worthy to take the scroll,
And to open its seals;
For You were slain,
And have redeemed us to God by your Blood...'" (Rev 5:1-9)
Interesting, because no one, man, bird nor beast, was able to open this seven-sealed scroll. The context shows that it was the scroll of our redemption. But then One was found who could open the scroll. Indeed, no one else could even so much as look upon it, for it is also the scroll of the righteousness of God (the law), which must be fulfilled before anyone could look upon it. Man is so sinful that he cannot rest his eyes upon the righteousness of God. How then shall he be good enough to get to heaven on his own merit? It took the death of God Himself to effect man's redemption. What shall sinful man add to that?
Furthermore, as the context of this passage shows, this was the scroll of the judgment of God. Who could open that book but God? As each seal is broken, great and terrible judgments will be loosed upon the earth. Then shall the world see and know the power and might and righteousness of God, even more than it is possible today to know the wonderful love of God. John, translated into heaven in the fourth chapter of the Revelation, sees these judgments poured out in later chapters, but here he sees the only One who is worthy to open the scroll. This One is worthy because He has already paid the full penalty of all that the Law demands; but He has not paid it on account of His own sins, but for ours, and for every man's. Oh, that righteous Blood, and what a multitude of sin a little love covered!
Adam was not born of the Seed of God. He was made of clay, and God breathed life into him. Jesus Christ was born of the Seed of God. If one plants potatoes, he does not grow bananas; he grows potatoes. The Seed of God does not produce man, but God. God did not have to breathe life into Jesus, for that which is eternally alive needs no further breath. God is the Father of His flesh, but Jesus is as much God as the Father is. Yet, He is also as human as His mother Mary, only without sin.
If we are to consider Christ's deity, we must acknowledge his eternal existence. We might look to Micah 5:2 :
"...but you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Though you are little among the thousands of Judah, Yet out of you shall come forth to Me the One who is to be Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth are from old, from everlasting."
Jesus was born in the flesh when that Babe was born in Bethlehem, but He goes all the way back through the infinite reaches of the eternal past as the Word of God which was made flesh. Jesus begins or ends a number of statements with the declaration, "I am." He is restating the declaration of God in the Old Testament, "I am that I am." He is the eternally existent One. Therefore is He God, for though He was born in the flesh, he existed with the Father throughout all of eternity. He was born, but He was not created.
There is also John 20:28 :
"And Thomas answered and said to Him, 'My Lord and my God!.' ''
This is the incident where Thomas did not believe that Jesus had been resurrected, and would not believe unless he could stick his fingers into the nail holes and his hand in Jesus' side. When Jesus appeared in the midst of the disciples, Thomas then believed in the Deity of the risen Lord, and immediately recognized and acknowledged Him as both Lord and God.
Since there is nothing that is from eternity but God, for everything else that there is sprang from His hand, only God is eternal. The fact that Jesus is declared to be eternal also mandates that He be God. And the fact that He is declared to be God necessitates His eternal existence. For that which has been created cannot stand as God, because He would then be subject to Him who created Him. God cannot be sovereign over everything, and yet be in subjection to still another higher power. God must be God, or He is not God..
We ought not fret because we cannot understand the Trinity. Our inability to understand God does not show the foolishness of God, but shows His infinite superiority to that which He has made. The fact that we cannot explain the Trinity ought not minimize the wisdom of God, but glorify it. It is absolutely necessary for everything to be precisely as the Bible declares them to be. That is the foundation of all sound doctrine. There is a harmony of doctrine that comes only from a literal rendering of His Word.
Like God the Father and the Holy Spirit, all of the attributes of God are ascribed to Jesus Christ. He is declared to be eternal (Mic 5:2), immutable (Heb 1:11-12; 13:8), omnipotent (1 Cor 15:28; Phil 3:21), omniscient and omnipresent. His deity is also declared in His works: creation, preservation, the forgiveness of sin, raising the dead, giving of life, and the execution of judgment, which is the right of God alone.
John declares Jesus to be the Logos of God. That is, the Word of God. It was an interesting choice of words. Logos has a twofold meaning. It means an unexpressed thought or word or concept, and it also means the physical expression of that thought or word or concept. As the Word of God, Jesus has been throughout all eternity the complete and yet infinite thought of God. He is everything that God knows, in Person. When God spoke in the creation (see Ps 33:6-9), He said one Word. He said, "Jesus." Then began a chain of events which would ultimately and inevitably lead to the physical expression of the Word of God in the flesh of a man. John goes on to say that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. As the Logos of God, it is imperative that Jesus be God, for no one is omniscient but God.
Speaking of the divided opinion concerning Jesus, John records:
"therefore many from the crowd, when they heard this saying, said, 'Truly this is the prophet.'
Others said, 'This is the Christ.'
But some said, 'Will the Christ come out of Galilee?'
'Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the seed of David and from the town of Bethlehem, where David was?'"
However, in the Book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ, John, describing the scene in heaven, hears one of the twenty-four elders say,
"...do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals." (Rev 5:5).
Jesus is declared to be both the Root and the Offspring of David. By admitting that the Christ is to come from Bethelhem, the Jews were acknowledging that the Messiah is God, for Micah was one of their own prophets, whose words we saw earlier in this discussion, where he said that the Messiah who comes out of Bethlehem is from everlasting.
Seven times, Christ used the great "I Am" declaration of Jehovah in reference to Himself, declaring plainly to the knowledgeable Jew that He is indeed the very God whom they professed to worship. We know that the Jews understood His claims to be God, for it was on account of this understanding that they sought to kill Him for blasphemy.
Jesus proved on many occasions that the natural realm had no power over Him, but that He controlled it. This He did with miracles of many sorts.
Furthermore, Jesus accepted as His right the worship of men. If He did this and He were not God, then He would not have been a prophet either, nor a good man, but an antichrist, and a blasphemer who accepted worship that is reserved for God alone.
The writers of the New Testament also confirm the deity of Christ in many and varied instances, by using divine names in reference to Him, by ascribing divine attributes to Him, and by teaching that he is to be worshipped. The Bible never teaches that mere human prophets are to be worshipped. Indeed, the Scriptures are very careful to show that every one of the prophets were sinful men, in every case but one charging them with specific sins. The only one who is not charged with a specific sin by the Word of God is Daniel, who acknowledged himself to be sinful.
We could go on for a long time showing from the Scriptures the deity of Christ. This small sampling will, however, have to suffice, at least for the present. There are many other doctrines to discuss in the pages of this website, and we must move forward. Perhaps we shall in time return to this page and flesh it out a bit. Never let it be said, however, that Jesus is not as much God as God the Father and the Holy Spirit, for the proofs are manifold and manifest.